Low transient and steady state thermal stress disk shaped components

ABSTRACT

A process for manufacturing a disk shaped component comprising fabricating a disk shaped component using a composite material having at least a first material and a second material, wherein the first material is disposed at and proximate to a center portion of the disk shaped component and the second material is disposed at and proximate to a rim of the disk shaped component, wherein the first material comprises a first coefficient of thermal expansion, a first stress value and a first oxidation resistance, and the second material comprises a second coefficient of thermal expansion, a second stress value and a second oxidation resistance, wherein the first coefficient of thermal expansion is greater than the second coefficient of thermal expansion, the first stress value is greater than the second stress value and the first oxidation resistance is less than the second oxidation resistance.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to disk shaped components and, more particularly,relates to low transient thermal stress disk shaped components.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Disk shaped components are generally subjected to two major types ofloading during operation. The first loading type is the centrifugalforce due to disk rotation. The second loading type arises fromtemperature gradient in the radial direction of the disk. The relativemagnitudes of these two types of loading depend upon the rotation speed,density of the disk material and the severity of the temperaturegradient. In general, the centrifugal load tends to generate more stressthan the thermal load, but the thermal load could also have asignificant impact upon the disk's mechanical integrity.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2, for purposes of example, the disk shapedcomponent may be a turbine disk commonly used in various engines. InFIG. 1, a turbine disk 10 is enclosed within a turbine support casing 22of a gas turbine engine 20. The turbine disk 10 includes rotor blades 24mounted thereto and disposed within a hot combustion gas stream 18between two vanes 26, 28. The turbine disk 10 is normally cooled bycompressor bleed air 12 flowing from the disk bore 14 to the disk rim16, where the air is discharged into a hot gas stream 18. With the rim16 being heated by the hot combustion gas stream 18, the temperaturegradient in the disk 10 is such that the rim 16 is hotter than the diskbore 14. The hotter rim 16 would expand more than the relatively coolerbore 14 assuming the same coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) for thetwo regions. The mismatch in thermal growth generates tensile thermalstress at the bore 14 and compressive stress at the rim 16. Since thetensile stress due to centrifugal force tends to peak at the disk bore14, the combined thermal and mechanical stress reaches a maximum also atthe bore 14.

Under both loading conditions, peak tensile stresses occur at the diskcenter or disk bore and therefore reinforce each other, creating theworst stress situation in the disk. For the bored disk, the peak stressis twice that for a solid disk. Although it would be ideal to alwaysutilize a solid disk, it is often necessary to have a bore in a disk inorder to pass cooling air or integrate a shaft of a front drive from,e.g., generator, propeller, etc., as illustrated in FIG. 1. Thesecircumstances sometimes make it difficult to meet the requisite diskmechanical integrity requirements, especially for materials ofrelatively low strength.

Therefore, there exists a need for lowering the thermal stress of abored disk in order to improve the overall mechanical integrity.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with one aspect of the present disclosure, a process formanufacturing a disk shaped component broadly comprises fabricating adisk shaped component using a composite material having at least a firstmaterial and a second material, wherein the first material is disposedat and proximate to a center portion of the disk shaped component andthe second material is disposed at and proximate to a rim of the diskshaped component, wherein the first material comprises a firstcoefficient of thermal expansion, a first stress value and a firstoxidation resistance, and the second material comprises a secondcoefficient of thermal expansion, a second stress value and a secondoxidation resistance, wherein the first coefficient of thermal expansionis greater than the second coefficient of thermal expansion, the firststress value is greater than the second stress value and said firstoxidation resistance is less than the second oxidation resistance.

In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, a processfor manufacturing a disk shaped component, broadly comprises the stepsof fabricating a disk shaped component using a composite material havingat least a first phase disposed at or proximate to a center portion ofthe disk shaped component and a second phased disposed at or proximateto a rim of the disk shaped component; and infiltrating at least aportion of the second phase with at least one material, wherein thefirst phase comprises a first coefficient of thermal expansion, a firststress value and a first oxidation resistance, and the second phasecomprises a second coefficient of thermal expansion, a second stressvalue and a second oxidation resistance, wherein the first coefficientof thermal expansion is greater than the second coefficient of thermalexpansion, the first stress value is greater than the second stressvalue and the first oxidation resistance is less than the secondoxidation resistance.

In accordance with yet another aspect of the present disclosure, a diskshaped component broadly comprises a center portion having a bore; and arim concentrically disposed about the center portion, wherein the diskshaped component composed of a composite material having at least afirst material disposed at or proximate to the center portion and asecond material disposed at or proximate to the rim, wherein the firstmaterial comprises a first coefficient of thermal expansion, a firststress value and a first oxidation resistance, and the second materialcomprises a second coefficient of thermal expansion, a second stressvalue and a second oxidation resistance, wherein the first coefficientof thermal expansion is greater than the second coefficient of thermalexpansion, the first stress value is greater than said second stressvalue and said first oxidation resistance is less than the secondoxidation resistance.

The details of one or more embodiments of the invention are set forth inthe accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features,objects, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from thedescription and drawings, and from the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a gas turbine equipped with aturbine disk of the prior art;

FIG. 2 is the turbine disk of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart representing an exemplary process of manufacturingan exemplary disk shaped component of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 4 is an exemplary disk shaped component of the present disclosure.

Like reference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicatelike elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As used herein, the phrase “different materials” such as “the firstmaterial and second material are different materials” means the firstmaterial and the second material are not both ceramic materials and thegraded composition is not composed of only ceramic materials.

The present disclosure examines mitigating the tensile stress at thedisk bore by reducing the thermal stress throughout the disk shapedcomponent. The exemplary disk shaped components described herein arecomposed of a composite material designed to at least substantiallyreduce and/or eliminate the problems associated with severe thermalstress(es) experienced by disk shaped components of the prior art.

The term “graded composition” means any one of the following: (1) acomposition composed of different materials such as metal, ceramic,metal alloy, composite particle, mixed powders, multiple metals orceramics, and the like; (2) a composition composed of materials havingdifferent morphologies, e.g., spherical, blocky, acicular, whiskers,fibrous, and the like; (3) a composition composed of materials havingdifferent microstructures, e.g., amorphous, crystalline, crystallinephase, and the like; or (4) a composition composed of materialsexhibiting the physical properties of the aforementioned compositions(1), (2) and (3), wherein the composition exhibits a graded structuresuch as linear, non-linear, step functions, quadratic, polynomial, pointdefects and other mathematical strategies for generation of grading asknown to one of ordinary skill in the art.

The materials mentioned in describing the aforementioned compositionsmay be produced using suitable fabrication techniques including solidfreeform fabrication technologies (SFF) or rapid manufacturingtechniques such as fused deposition modeling (FDM), extrusion freeformfabrication (EFF), laser-enhanced net shaping (LENS), 3-dimensionalprinting (3DP), ink jet printing, selective laser sintering (SLS) andthe like; combinations comprising at least one of the foregoingtechniques, and the like. SFF techniques can produce parts from metal,ceramic and polymers, as well as mixed or composite powders and alloys.Certain techniques are more amenable to the use of powder-basedmaterials while other techniques are more suitable for bulk materials inwire or vapor form. For example, FDM is an extrusion-based process forthermoplastics that has been modified to incorporate metal, ceramic andmixed powders suitable for fabricating metal, ceramic and mixedmetal/ceramic objects. Also, EFF is used to fabricate functionallygraded materials (FGM) by extrusion of two dissimilar materials.Generally, FGMs consist of a synergistic combination of two materials,e.g., a metal and a ceramic. However, it is conceivable that FGMs couldconsist of two or more dissimilar metal or ceramic phases having acontinuous composition gradient between their respective end members,e.g., ceramic phase 1 and ceramic phase 2. SLS techniques permitsintering polymer coated metal or ceramic powders. Other laser-basedtechniques such as LENS are used to directly melt a wire or powderfeedstock of the target composition. In addition to the fabricationtechniques described above, the composite material may form a firstphase and a second phase, where the second phase is composed of at leastone and/or a plurality of pores, that is, a residual porosity. Theresidual porosity may be infiltrated with a metal such as copper orbronze, or other aforementioned material, to densify the part and createa “composite” part containing uniformly distributed steel and copper,for example. The residual porosity may also be infiltrated with apolymer, polymer blend or filled polymer system designed to convert toselect metal and/or ceramic phase(s). One example of such a method isdescribed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,228,437 to Schmidt, assigned to UnitedTechnologies Corporation, which is incorporated by reference herein inits entirety.

Referring now to the flowchart of FIG. 3, the exemplary disk shapedcomponents described herein may be manufactured at step 30 using any oneof a number of techniques known to one of ordinary skill in the art. Forexample, suitable techniques may include rapid prototyping processes,rapid manufacturing processes such as 3-D printing methods, laserdeposition techniques, fused deposition modeling, thermal spraytechniques, investment casting, combinations comprising at least one ofthe foregoing methods, and the like. In addition to or in thealternative to direct fabrication of solid articles, disk shapedcomponents exhibiting a residual porosity may be infiltrated, orback-filled, at step 32 with another desirable phase or combination ofphases. An example of such fabrication techniques is disclosed in U.S.Pat. No. 6,228,437 to Schmidt. In addition to or in the alternative todirect fabrication of solid articles, the resultant disk shapedcomponents may be subsequently processed (e.g. thermally, chemically,etc.) to convert one or more phases within the structure to anotherphase, or to completely remove one or more phases (e.g. leaching,melting, etc.). When completed, at least a portion, if not in theirentirety, of the exemplary disk shaped components may also be coated.Representative suitable coatings include those in U.S. Pat. Nos.6,924,040, 6,730,422, 6,284,323, 6,902,836, and 7,063,894 assigned toUnited Technologies Corporation, and incorporated by reference herein intheir entirety. Coating architectures and deposition methods will beselected depending on the substrate composition (e.g. metal, ceramic,ceramic matrix composite, alloy, etc.).

Referring now to FIG. 4, a representation of an exemplary disk shapedcomponent 40 described herein is shown. As discussed above, a diskshaped component requires increased mechanical integrity at andproximate to the bore while requiring increased resistance to thermalstresses at and proximate to the rim. Disk shaped component 40 maycomprise a first material 42, or phase, disposed at or proximate to acenter portion 44 having a bore 46. The first material may possess acoefficient of thermal expansion having a range of about 6 ppm/° F. toabout 8 ppm/° F., a strength value having a range of about 80 ksi toabout 150 ksi, and an oxidation resistance having a range of about 500 °F. to about 800 ° F. In accordance with the exemplary process(es)described herein, the composite material may then be layered or gradedto introduce materials possessing a coefficient of thermal expansionlower than the first material yet exhibit a greater oxidation resistancethan the first material.

The next layer or graded material 48 may possess a coefficient ofthermal expansion having a range of about 5.5 ppm/° F. to about 7.5ppm/° F., a strength value having a range of about 70 ksi to about 140ksi, and an oxidation resistance having a range of about 600 ° F. toabout 900 ° F. The following layer or graded material 50 may possess acoefficient of thermal expansion having a range of about 5 ppm/° F. toabout 7 ppm/° F., a strength value having a range of about 60 ksi toabout 130 ksi, and an oxidation resistance having a range of about 700 °F. to about 1000 ° F.

The rim may then be comprised of a second material 52 possessing acoefficient of thermal expansion that is less than the other materialsin use, yet exhibiting an oxidation resistance that is greater than theother materials. As discussed above, the rim of a disk shaped componentis exposed to the heated combustion gas and thus requires a materialcomposition able to withstand stringent oxidation conditions. The secondmaterial 52 may possess a coefficient of thermal expansion having arange of about 4.5 ppm/° F. to about 6.5 ppm/° F., a strength valuehaving a range of about 55 ksi to about 120 ksi, and an oxidationresistance having a range of about 800° F. to about 1100° F.

In accordance with the principles of present disclosure, the disk bore(i.e., first material 42) of the disk shaped component may be ideallycomposed of a material having a high coefficient of thermal expansion, ahigh strength value and a low oxidation resistance. In contrast, thedisk rim (i.e., second material 52) of the same component may be ideallycomposed of a material having a comparably lower coefficient of thermalexpansion, a lower strength value and a higher oxidation resistance.However, as one of ordinary skill in the art recognizes, factors such ascosts, material availability, operating conditions and partspecifications may dictate the choice of materials utilized tomanufacture the exemplary disk shaped component described herein. Giventhese unknown factors, to achieve the greatest benefit of the presentdisclosure, the disk bore (i.e., first material 42) of the disk shapedcomponent may at least be composed of a material having a relativelyhigh coefficient of thermal expansion, given the operating conditions,etc., while the disk rim (i.e., second material 52) may at least becomposed of a material having a high oxidation resistance, given theoperating conditions, etc.

The exemplary disk shaped components described herein possess distinctadvantages over disk shaped components of the prior art. First, thefunctionally graded materials used to manufacture these components maybe tailored to exhibit the most advantageous combination of mechanicaland thermal properties. The functionally graded materials used hereinexhibit an advantageous combination of mechanical and thermal propertiesacross a broad range of operating conditions. Secondly, the developmentof rapid manufacturing techniques have progressed to the point where thecosts involved are comparable and commensurate with certain castingprocesses typically employed to manufacture disk shaped components.Other advantages and benefits to using functionally graded materials inconstructing disk shaped components include the potential forsignificant weight reduction, tailorable erosion and abrasionresistance, and more efficient heat transfer.

One or more embodiments of the present invention have been described.Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may bemade without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.Accordingly, other embodiments are within the scope of the followingclaims.

1. A process for manufacturing a disk shaped component comprisingfabricating a disk shaped component using a composite material having atleast a first material and a second material, wherein said firstmaterial is disposed at and proximate to a center portion of said diskshaped component and said second material is disposed at and proximateto a rim of said disk shaped component, wherein said first materialcomprises a first coefficient of thermal expansion, a first stress valueand a first oxidation resistance, and said second material comprises asecond coefficient of thermal expansion, a second stress value and asecond oxidation resistance, wherein said first coefficient of thermalexpansion is greater than said second coefficient of thermal expansion,said first stress value is greater than said second stress value andsaid first oxidation resistance is less than said second oxidationresistance.
 2. The process of claim 1, wherein fabricating comprisesgrading at least said first material and said second material to formsaid composite material.
 3. The process of claim 2, wherein gradingcomprises at least one of the following types of grading: linear,non-linear, step functions, quadratic, polynomial, point defects, andcombinations thereof.
 4. The process of claim 1, wherein fabricatingcomprises at least one of the following processes: solid freeformfabricating, selective laser sintering, fused deposition modeling,extrusion freeform fabricating, laser enhanced net shaping,3-dimensional printing, ink jet printing and combinations thereof. 5.The process of claim 1, wherein said first material and said secondmaterial each comprise at least any one of the following materials:metal, ceramic, metal alloy, mixed powders, composite particle, multiplemetals or ceramics, and combinations thereof, wherein said firstmaterial and said second material are different.
 6. The process of claim1, wherein said first material and said second material exhibitdifferent morphologies or different microstructures or both differentmorphologies and different microstructures.
 7. The process of claim 1,wherein said first material and said second material comprise a firstpowdered material and a second powdered material.
 8. The process ofclaim 1, wherein fabricating further comprises fabricating said diskshaped component using a composite material having at least a firstmaterial, a second material, a third material and a fourth material. 9.The process of claim 8, wherein said first material comprises acoefficient of thermal expansion of about 6 ppm/° F. to about 8 ppm/°F., a strength value of about 80 ksi to about 150 ksi and an oxidationresistance of about 500° F. to about 800° F., said second materialcomprises a coefficient of thermal expansion of about 6 ppm/° F. toabout 8 ppm/° F., a strength value of about 80 ksi to about 150 ksi andan oxidation resistance of about 500° F. to about 800° F., said thirdmaterial comprises a coefficient of thermal expansion of about 6 ppm/°F. to about 8 ppm/° F., a strength value of about 80 ksi to about 150ksi and an oxidation resistance of about 500° F. to about 800° F., andsaid fourth material comprises a coefficient of thermal expansion ofabout 6 ppm/° F. to about 8 ppm/° F., a strength value of about 80 ksito about 150 ksi and an oxidation resistance of about 500° F. to about800° F.
 10. A process for manufacturing a disk shaped component,comprising the steps of: fabricating a disk shaped component using acomposite material having at least a first phase disposed at orproximate to a center portion of said disk shaped component and a secondphased disposed at or proximate to a rim of said disk shaped component;and infiltrating at least a portion of said second phase with at leastone material, wherein said first phase comprises a first coefficient ofthermal expansion, a first stress value and a first oxidationresistance, and said second phase comprises a second coefficient ofthermal expansion, a second stress value and a second oxidationresistance, wherein said first coefficient of thermal expansion isgreater than said second coefficient of thermal expansion, said firststress value is greater than said second stress value and said firstoxidation resistance is less than said second oxidation resistance. 11.The process of claim 10, wherein fabricating comprises at least one ofthe following processes: solid freeform fabricating, selective lasersintering, fused deposition modeling, extrusion freeform fabricating,laser enhanced net shaping, 3-dimensional printing, ink jet printing andcombinations thereof.
 12. The process of claim 10, wherein fabricatingfurther comprises grading at least said first phase and said secondphase to form said composite material.
 13. The process of claim 12,wherein grading comprises at least one of the following types ofgrading: linear, non-linear, step functions, quadratic, polynomial,point defects, and combinations thereof.
 14. The process of claim 10,wherein said second phase comprises a residual porosity.
 15. The processof claim 10, wherein fabricating further comprises fabricating said diskshaped component using a composite material having said first phasedisposed at or proximate to a center portion of said disk shapedcomponent, said second phased disposed at or proximate to a rim of saiddisk shaped component and a third phase and a fourth phase disposedbetween said first phase and said second phase. 16-19. (canceled)